“ALWAYS WALKING THE ROAD OF JUDAISM”

When I was a student in my Reform temple’s religious school in Cleveland, Ohio, I encountered a textbook called Reform Is A Verb, written by an activist and teacher – and Bostonian – named Leonard Fein.  The title of the book told the whole story, it would become a classic in Reform Judaism, and it would change my relationship to my Jewish life. 

Fein set out the idea that Reform Judaism is constantly growing and developing, and that in its best expression, Reform Jews were continually bringing new energy and meaning to it, remaking it.  Our movement was not called “reformed” Judaism; to Fein, that often misused adjective implied that the reforming was over and done and in the past tense, or that we assumed no responsibility for the Jewish present or future.  No, Leonard Fein wrote, always must “we shape, we create, we invent” our experience as Jews.  Reform is a verb because, just as we are always moving, growing and changing as human beings, so, too, should we be moving, growing and changing as Jews. 

This book formed my understanding of what it means to be a Reform Jew.  (You can get a copy of it in our Larkin Library.)  From the day I read it – and I must have been somewhere in my teenage years – I tried to leave myself open to new Jewish experiences and new ideas, even those that might impel me to alter my lifestyle or habits.  I was fortunate back then to be part of a Reform congregation that had a rich educational program, that had rabbis who loved to debate Jewish ideas and practice, and that pushed its members – adults and teens – to strive for justice and righteousness and to experience with wonder the mystery and beauty of Jewish tradition. 

Judaism is meant to challenge us spiritually, and that as to be “true” to Reform Judaism, we should always be finding new ways to perform the holy acts of Jewish learning, social justice and sacred rituals.  As Jews living in a time of tremendous change in our world, we are fortunate to have both ancient and modern ways of finding spiritual meaning.  When we find new intersections between ancient and modern, we can remake Judaism in beautiful new ways.

In 1966, a few years before Leonard Fein’s book was first published, another Reform teacher, Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf, who was the rabbi at Yale Hillel and at flagship Reform synagogues in Chicago, wrote an essay published in Commentary magazine’s forum on the state of Jewish belief.  He wrote that we are all on a journey, and he called his metaphor for the obligation to continually grow as Jews “walking Judaism street.”  He wrote:

“I try to walk the road of Judaism.  Embedded in that road there are many jewels.  One is marked “Sabbath,” and one “Civil Rights” and one “Kashrut” and one “Honor Your Parents” and one “Study of Torah” and one “You Shall Be Holy.”  There are at least 613 of them, and they are of different shapes and sizes and weights.  Some are light and easy for me to pick up, and I pick them up.  Some are too deeply embedded for me, so far at least, though I get a little stronger by trying to extricate the jewels as I walk the street.  Some, perhaps, I shall never be able to pick up.

“I believe that God expects me to keep on walking Judaism Street and to carry away whatever I can of its commandments.  I do not believe that God expects me to lift what I cannot, nor may I condemn my fellow Jew who may not be able to pick up even as much as I can.”

I love this metaphor, because I read in it the joy of finding new Jewish spiritual challenges, “jewels” that make us richer if we are able to carry them.  I appreciate the sense that there is no stigma or judgment upon us as Reform Jews if we are not currently able or willing to take on certain mitzvot, and that we continue to “walk on Judaism Street” by being open to the possibility they could one day be meaningful to us. 

I hope Temple Sinai will help all of us to keep walking down this dazzling street to discover the many beautiful jewels of Jewish practice and belief, ideas, teachings and holy acts.  We grow stronger as we walk together, and we strengthen each other with our new discoveries, the beautiful jewels of meaningful Jewish life.

Rabbi Andy Vogel